Ignore Their Whining. Health Insurers Are Thriving Under the Affordable Care Act, Raked in $65 Billion in Profits Since 2010
Oct. 26, 2016
Ignore Their Whining. Health Insurers Are Thriving Under the Affordable Care Act, Raked in $65 Billion in Profits Since 2010
Statement of Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen
Health insurers are whining about how Obamacare is costing them money, but the reality is that they are thriving under the Affordable Care Act. The top five corporate insurance giants have made $65 billion in profits since passage of the Affordable Care Act and have continued reporting outsized profits since the act was fully implemented in 2014. (See Public Citizen’s new analysis.)
Soaring health insurance costs under Obamacare are not due to a profit squeeze on the insurers, but to the health insurance corporations’ power over the marketplace.
There’s only one real cure for this malady: replacing the profit-driven health insurance companies with a single-payer, improved Medicare-for-All system. Until then, the country will continue to suffer from out-of-control costs, denial of care, and paralyzing deductibles and co-pays – with tens of millions going without insurance altogether.
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